Christopher Brookmyre [Angeli A Snowball in Hell (epub)

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.I knew also that they were unlikely to be indulging in the former vice while they had a houseguest, so consumption of the latter was bound to increase by way of compensation.I called several local suppliers, with whom I had, shall we say, a rapport, and ran message-boy Miko’s description past them.Arturo at the casino (where he was by far the busiest dealer), confirmed a portly source of much recent custom.I made a business proposition and we arranged to meet within the hour.Upon my instruction, Arturo rang the mobile number Miko gave him and offered him the drugs equivalent of a fire-sale: he told him he was having to get off the island in a hurry, and as he couldn’t take his stash with him, the whole lot was available at a knockdown price, for a limited time only.Hurry, hurry, hurry.Miko went for it with all the restrained dignity of a piranha, agreeing to a meet early that evening.I paid Arturo the shortfall in the price arranged with Miko, plus a little more for his trouble, then headed for a tool-hire outlet in the industrial area of town.I watched Miko emerge from a BMW and approach the casino, walking as ever like a gorilla bursting for a shite.He was dressed in an evening suit in an attempt to look inconspicuously respectable, but given that primate gait and his mangled features, the jacket and tie in between looked sufficiently incongruous that he might as well be wearing a t-shirt stating ‘In-bred gangster trash’.I watched him enter the casino, then tried his car door and found it unsurprisingly open.It’s a common conceit among these criminal also-rans that people – especially their fellow crooks – are somehow aware of how baaad they are, and would therefore never dare fuck with their person or their property.I lay down in the rear footwell and prepared to disabuse Miko of both presumptions.He returned inside ten minutes, giggling like a kid who’s raided the candy shop.I waited for him to place his prize in the glove compartment and reach for the ignition, before spiking him in the neck with a hypodermic full of thiopentone.He reacted reflexively with a slap, thinking the jab was an insect bite, by which time the agent was already in his blood and my silencer in his face.‘Sweet dreams,’ I told him.Miko awoke to find himself strapped securely to a steel table in a low-ceilinged, windowless room.We were in the cellar of my villa, in the hills overlooking the port, but Miko didn’t know this.Nor did he know that he was about to become nostalgic for the hospitality of those Russian soldiers.He came round slowly, groggily at first, but sharpened up very quickly as he took in his surroundings and realised the circumstances.I remained behind him at the head end of the table.If he strained his neck muscles he could see me, but for the moment he was scanning the cold stone walls, bare apart from cobwebs and the ancient, dustbound workbench to his right.On it sat a rusted but serviceable vice, a power drill, an electric paint stripper, a hacksaw, a boombox and a feather duster.His breathing accelerated and his arms tested the restraints.I guessed it wasn’t the duster that spooked him, but some people do have awfully ticklish feet.You never can tell.Predictably, he asked who I was, trying it in French, English and Spanish.‘Let’s save time and just lay our cards down on the table, Miko,’ I said.‘I want to know where Risto is holding the boy.’‘How do you know my name?’‘I know a lot more than that.Most relevantly, I know that I would be insulting you to assume you’d give up your brother without first undergoing some quite unnecessary prolonged and excruciating pain.Equally, you would be insulting me if you thought I’d believe anything you said before that, so allow me to treat us both with all due respect.’His eyes flitted to the workbench again and he swallowed, a look of determination fixing upon his features.Then I wheeled the gas tanks from behind the table, into his line of sight, which is when he started to squirm and whimper.I flipped down the visor on my protective mask and pressed Play on the boombox.The sound insulation in the basement was fine, but I find screaming to be very disconcerting while I’m trying to concentrate.I fired up the torch as the music started [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]

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